Elemental

Present Interlude #1

His prison was frightening in its sterility. Adam Summers was a tad anal retentive about keeping his belongings clean and in its proper place but once he got home, he thought he'd be pretty damn happy living in a pig sty. If he never saw another lava lamp, it would be too soon.

He'd heard about these containment tanks on TV. Remy had let him watch X-Files when he was a kid even though it was way up past his bed time. Of course, since he was only nine or ten at the time, he'd bury his head in Remy's shoulder and miss half the show. One episode that always stayed in his nightmares had a scene like this one: row upon row of people floating in tanks, tubes and wires tangling in and around their ghastly bluish bodies. He'd always wondered if those people knew what was going on, if they were freaking out or carefully planning an escape, if their actions all went to waste because some drug was keeping their limbs from obeying their brains.

The laboratory on TV wasn't as clean though. This place was terrifyingly clean.

Dark blobs wiggled into shape before him. Adam tried to blink, tried to get his eyes to focus but it was no use. All he could ever see were blurry blots moving across a rippling glass. That was the worst part in all of this, not being able to see or hear properly. His imagination made up for the blanks and damn it for being too good at its job. He'd gone from aliens to his dad's enemies getting revenge to slave traders in the time he'd been here.

Machines whined close by. Adam tensed. That was one noise he recognized right away.

Move, move, movemovemovemovemove! he screamed at his body. Oh, shit, oh, God, please if I could just move, please.

The whine grew softer but instead of calming Adam, his terror increased. Any second now, one of those tubes would pipe something into him, something thick and painful that made his nose burn and his every nerve scream.

His silent mantra changed from "Oh, God, please let me move" to "Oh, God, please get Scott." Scott always fixed everything. Whenever life got too screwed up, Scott was always there and he always fixed it and he always saved them all from everything and oh, God, please let Scott find me this time, please oh please oh plea--